Inner Admiral
by JasonOfIolcus
Summary: After the Incident, the emotions are ready for business as usual, but the repercussions of their misadventure keep coming. How will they deal with an Imperial Grand Admiral in the control room, and what is Thrawn even doing here?
1. Movie Night

"Aright everyone! Fear, napkins?"  
"Check!"  
"Sadness, blankets?"  
"Ready."  
"Anger, soft drinks?"  
"Bubbling and ready!"  
"Disgust, popcorn?"  
"Just a minute! by the way Anger, is everything bigger, or did you just shrink?"  
"Rraaahhhgh!"  
*FWOOM!*  
*Pop! PopPopPop!*  
"Alright, popcorn is ready."  
"Joy?"  
"Yes, Joy?"  
"Shiny console?"  
"Console shiny!"

Disgust rolled her eyes as she poured the popcorn into classy paper cartons. At times like this, Joy was almost a caricature of herself. Everyone moved toward their seats at the new console in their various fashions: Sadness shuffling, Anger grumbling and still smoking slightly, Disgust strutting quickly, Fear carefully plodding.

"Alright everyone, this is our first movie night with the new console, and I for one would like to say-"  
"We know, we know! Test the full capabilities, yadda yadda. You've been going on about it all day." Anger smoldered slightly as he cut Joy off.  
"You have been a bit, uh, manic recently," agreed Sadness.

"Sorry guys, I just really cannot wait to make this the best experience yet! Just think of how stirring it will be for Riley to experience a film with the full mix of our talents!" Joy practically squealed as she leaned over her spot at the middle of the console. Fear sat to her near right, checking one last time to be sure the napkins were properly folded before passing them out. Anger doled out everyone's choice of beverage and sat down on the far left, with Sadness at the near left after the felt blankets were distributed. Finally, Disgust delicately placed the popcorn containers in each place before sitting down at the far right. With everyone settled in, everyone's attention turned to the big screen, which displayed Riley's view of the living room in the family's new house in San Francisco.

"I don't know, Joy, it's kind of up to the movie to make this good," Disgust tried to stay pessimistic, not wanting to succumb to hype.  
"Yeah, what if it's just scary all the way through! We don't want to be too stirred!" Fear bit his imagined nails.  
"Oh, don't be silly, this is a classic!" Joy ate a huge handful of popcorn, despite knowing she would run out much too fast that way. She and Fear also fiddled with the console, generating a mix which Sadness would identify as anticipation.  
"I like the classics; they are usually a deeper experience," Sadness remarked quietly.  
"Classic equals boring. School is about the classics, remember? Bunch-a mumbo-jumbo-talking and sitting around." Anger snorted.  
"Not everything has to be explosions and fight scenes!" Fear retorted.

Meanwhile, Dad, Riley's Dad that is, slipped a DVD into the player. The Andersens had a new HD television, and not because the moving truck had still not arrived after a week and a half; they hadn't even packed the old CRT relic of the 80's they'd had in Minnesota. Now that Dad had finally mounted it, he was ready to show Riley one of his favorite movies. His emotions were looking forward to it as well, and were prepared in similar fashion to Riley's, with the obvious difference of having nachos instead of popcorn. Dad plopped down on the folding chair (still no moving van with couch yet) to the left of Riley. He looked over to be sure his family was ready, and hit play. Three humans, and their sets of emotions, settled back to enjoy the show.  
Lucasfilm THX... 20th Century Fox fanfare... and there it is:

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..."


	2. A New Fandom

Throughout the movie, Riley's emotions worked the console in concert with the picture on the screen in front of the vision screen. The flurry of adjustments to the levers, knobs, and switches increased as Riley became more engrossed in the movie and the storyline; coincidentally, the emotions also ran out of snacks one by one, and the order of causation shall be left to the esteemed Reader to infer. In whatever case, each emotion had his (or her) moments to shine: Joy at the introduction of the lightsaber and escape from the Death star, Disgust at the garbage compactor, Anger at the dogfights and trading blaster-fire, Fear at the first glimpse of the Death Star; then there was Sadness, who so far had the most powerful moments at the destruction of Alderaan and deaths of Obi-Wan, Aunt Beru, and Uncle Owen. Now the climax approached, and with all the popcorn gone, memories of many mixes were lining up on the shelves.

 _"Several fighters have broken off from the main group; come with me."_

Fear held on to his composure, but just barely. His hands were shaking though, subtly the tension Riley felt. Sadness twisted knobs, reacting almost in tandem with Anger whenever a Rebel fighter was shot down, occasionally loosing a whimper. Meanwhile, Joy and Disgust admired the visual effects, Joy occasionally reacting when a TIE exploded. Then Luke began his attack run.

 _"Rebel base one minute and closing."_

Fear began to chew his nails and curl up in his seat as Luke began his attack run. Disgust rolled her eyes slightly, but said nothing. She knew it would end well, but would not be guilty of messing up a well-executed scene; John Wiliams' score may have done some of the persuading to that end.

 _"I'm on the leader."_

Fear was now curled all the way in the fetal position, though still balanced on his chair. The wingman was blown out of the sky, and suddenly it was only Luke in the trench with Darth Vader and the Imperial wingmen. The music turned staccato, the two pilots adjusted their targeting computers. Then,

 _"Use the Force, Luke. Let go."_

The emotions gasped. They did remember Kenobi's voice appearing twice before, but had assumed it was just some artistic memory of Luke's or something. Now, in the heat of moment, it was suggesting they all understood thoroughly out of line for a good pilot. Luke switched off his targeting computer; he believed Ben's voice. Then, disaster struck: R2 was shot dead, and the Rebel tactical display showed the Death Star in firing position. Finally, the Death Star technicians began to fire up the main cannon, and Vader had Luke perfectly in his cross-hairs.  
Disgust was no longer as sure about the happy ending. Fear covered his eyes.

 _"What!"_

Out of nowhere, one of Vader's wingmen took fire and exploded! Fear peeked out to see the camera pan up to show the Millennium Falcon, and Joy led the emotions in a small cheer. Vader and the other TIE were thrown off course. The jubilation quickly quieted; Luke still needed to do his part. The proton torpedoes sailed into the exhaust port (making, as Disgust noted, a weird turn to enter the little hole), and the Rebel starfighters withdrew, even as the Imperial technicians continued the firing sequence. Was it soon enough to save the base?  
As it turned out, yes. The Death Star exploded brilliantly, and Joy led another, more substantial cheer.

 _"Remember: the Force will be with you. Always."_

Saddness added a quick button press in memory of Ben, and for the fact that Vader escaped. Finally, a fanfare began to play, as the sort of epilogue award scene played. Since there was no dialogue, the emotions began to comment and collect their garbage.  
"Woohoo! That was great!" Joy opened, of course.  
"Yeah! Plenty of sci-fi action for everyone! And you said it was a classic," Anger couldn't help but try to bait Disgust or Fear into a reaction.  
"It really had good depth; they weren't afraid to drive home the conflict." Sadness sniffled, eyes misty, but sporting a little grin nonetheless. "Alderaan, Ben, and-"  
"Artoo!" Joy squealed, as the little droid appeared, fully repaired.  
"And all that tension; I was wound tighter than a, a uh, really tight spring." Fear was still a little frazzled from the suspense, and could be forgiven for not having a good analogy at hand. Disgust merely rolled her eyes, though even she had to admit it was a good film. Just not out loud. The credits rolled and the emotions began to toss their garbage and clean up the little spots of butter from the console. Joy, buoyed up by the music, quickly dialed up a huge grin for Riley.

As the credits rolled, the humans began to do the same: standing, stretching, and Mom collected the popcorn bowls. They weren't manipulating consoles, of course.  
"Well Riley, what did you think?" Dad asked.  
"It was the best!" Riley replied immediately. "The space battles, and the characters, especially Leia!"  
"Yeah, Leia is certainly better than most Disney Princesses." Dad agreed.  
Riley's Anger did a double take. "Wait, Leia's a Disney Princess!?"  
Riley herself was also baffled. "She's a Disney Princess?" she said, with less force than the aforementioned emotion.  
"Well, sort of, you see..." Dad launched into an explanation of Lucasfilm being bought by Disney. Mom simply laughed as she re-entered the room, and hugged Riley. Joy and Disgust gave Riley enough intrigue to pay attention, though Anger had already lost interest, mumbling about technicalities.  
"So, will you be interested in the next one?" Mom asked.  
"There are more!?" Joy exclaimed.  
"Absolutely!" Riley said, inadvertently answering both her mother and the rhetorical question posed by her emotion.  
"Well, you best get on your homework then. We can watch Empire tomorrow evening if you get it done," Dad tousled Riley's hair. Joy was glad they would be seeing it soon enough, though Sadness added a twinge for the wait time.  
"Aw, but Dad-"  
"No buts about it, young lady. Now then, it's time for you to get to bed. You'll have to finish that math sheet after practice tomorrow," Mom insisted.  
Anger grumbled slightly, but kept his complaints to himself. No need to ruin his chances of seeing more space battles.

After going about Riley's nightly routine and getting comfortable in bed - well, the sleeping bag on the ground which served as sleeping arrangements until the moving truck arrived - the final Train of thought left HQ. Riley closed her eyes, and the sleep cycle began.  
Joy had dream duty tonight, but saw the others to bed. Ever since the Incident, she took great pains to be mindful of her teammates. "Good night Anger! Good night Fear! Don't let the bedbugs bite!"  
Fear laughed only somewhat nervously, and Anger replied "I'll squash any that do!"  
"Goodnight Disgust!"  
"Yeah, you too," Disgust said flatly.  
"Goodnight- Sadness? Why aren't you heading to bed?"  
The short, blue emotion was standing by the large windows overlooking the Personality Islands and Long Term Memory.  
"Oh, I saw that they're renovating one of the islands. Come look, if you want," Sadness halfheartedly gestured Joy to join her. Joy quickly triggered the day's memories to proceed to Long-Term, before going to the windows. She immediately saw the cloud of dust coming from the Tragic Vampire Island, so named for the, well, tragic vampire theme. Most Personality Islands were named from a combination of their appearance and the core memory which spawned them; occasionally, islands changed to better reflect their true purpose, requiring a name change as well. For example, Friendship Island was originally called Meg Island. Tragic Vampire Island was Sadness' favorite, in large part because the 'tragic' portion spoke to her, as most catharsis and tragedy was her best way to get to influence Riley without affecting, and sometimes with improving, her general happiness. As such, the fact that even a small section had been bulldozed, with Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, Leia, and Luke statues going up in the previously tragic spot with a little starfighter amusement ride was somewhat disappointing. Joy tried her best to sympathize, even if she was still secretly a little selfishly glad that the saddest island was a little happier.  
"Oh, I'm sorry Sadness. I know you really liked that. But, hey, now it's more like a 'Fiction Island' island than just Vampires. Think of the possibilities!"  
Joy got about half-way there; she really was trying. Sadness still drooped a little lower, as the workers below began to test the ride. Then Joy got an idea.  
"Oh! I know what will cheer you up, er, figuratively speaking," Joy stumbled, but Sadness looked up with a little hope. She gave Joy the benefit of the doubt; usually she had good ideas, if she wasn't always the most tactful. Joy, feeling encouraged, continued, "We could encourage Riley to check out some new tragic novels from the library! Maybe one of those _Series of Unfortunate Events_ books. I hear they're pretty good!" She smiled radiantly, and Sadness couldn't help but be encouraged. Besides, they had run out of vampire books.  
"Okay, thanks Joy." Not the most enthusiastic, but Joy would take it.  
Joy nudged the other emotion toward the sleeping quarters. "No problem, that's what I'm here for! Go ahead and rest. Remember, we need to be up bright and early for Hockey practice!"  
Once Sadness was in the bedroom, Joy settled down in front of the large console at her unusual spot. She didn't have to wait long for the Dream Productions

Original to come up on screen: it seemed to be an X-Wing flight simulation inside Riley's school, and Vader had the 'cool' kids as wingmen.  
"They come up with the weirdest things down there," Joy thought. "Ah well; it's been a good day." She got comfortable for the night, ready to enjoy whatever hijinks the crew would throw in, and let her own thoughts roam.

She had one little epiphany before the dream began to get interesting: "I wonder if there are any Star Wars books we could get."


	3. Busy Day

"Watch Out!" Fear pulled a lever, causing Riley to dodge just in time to avoid getting clonked by a screwdriver.  
"You okay honey?"  
"Yeah dad, I'm fine! It missed me."  
"Great." Dad Andersen leaned out over the attic hatchway. "Could you hand it back up to me? Thanks."  
"Nice save, Fear!" Joy slapped the lanky emotion on the back.  
Fear adjusted his bow-tie "well, yes, just doing my job."

It was Saturday, and although there was no school, Riley was staying busy. First there was an early-morning hockey practice, which gave Anger almost as much as a workout as Riley, as he was the best at channeling the necessary energy and focus. Joy, of course, kept things sportsmanlike. Right after practice, Mom took Riley shopping for winter clothes. Autumn was right around the corner, and even if the moving truck had arrived, Riley's old winter-wear was getting threadbare, not to mention too small. Of course, that called for Disgust to take point, with Joy once again maintaining the good attitude, even in the face of Mom's refusal to buy them a watch to match the theme Disgust had fixated upon. Then, after a fine lunch of chicken sandwiches and lemonade (with fruit-cup, as Mom insisted), it was back home to help with cleaning the house.  
Normally, this would just be Riley's chores: a full tidying of her room with dusting, and vacuuming the carpeted portions of the house. This weekend, however, Mom and Dad had decided to take advantage of their lack of furniture to effect minor repairs and scrub the house top to bottom. Dad lugged around his tool set caulking windows, tightening hinges, and replacing electrical sockets and light bulbs. Meanwhile, Mom touched up bits of paint and the stucco ceiling. Riley was given the responsibility of using the rented Rug Doctor to deep clean the carpets; once that was finished, Dad had her help him by holding screws, fetching tools, and sometimes actually using the tools, because "handiness is a virtue," as he liked to say, so teaching Riley some home improvement was high on his list of priorities.  
Currently, Dad was finishing replacing the attic hatch hinges, which had rusted enough to make it hard to open.

"How are we going to get our homework done in time for the movie at this rate!" Disgust groaned, flicking a knob.  
"Yeah, Riley's been working all day! We need a break." Anger agreed, though he didn't look up from his newspaper.  
Joy, ever unflappable, replied "Oh come on, this is fun! The fresh clean smell, helping Dad with home stuff, and having time to daydream!"  
Sadness looked up from behind the newest Mind Manual, 'Expanded Console Mk IV, Volume 7: Miscellaneous Buttons.' "Didn't we read somewhere that these chemicals are bad for Riley?"  
"Oh come on, they're perfectly safe. Mom and Dad wouldn't put us in danger like that," Joy preempted Fear, who almost triggered a 'hold breath' airborne toxin contingency. "Speaking of daydreams, should I put in the next cartridge?" She held up a small square card, on which was encoded a daydream from one of the indie producers just outside Dream Productions proper.  
"Let's ask Dad," Disgust gingerly touched one of her controls.  
"Hey, Dad? Are you almost done?" Riley asked cautiously. "I want to finish my homework."  
"Ooh, nice touch with the homework. That'll convince him." Anger mumbled.  
"Okay." Dad stretched as he came down from the attic. Making consideration noises, he tested the new hinges. "Yep, I think that's it. Go ahead; you don't want to miss the movie tonight."  
"Thanks Dad!" Riley quickly set down the box of screws she had been holding and raced to her room; it was quite clear who had the most influence at that point.

Soon Riley was knee-deep in pre-algebra problems, and her Emotions had some time to stretch, move around, and generally take a break. Fear brewed a fresh batch of tea in the kitchenette, Disgust went to retouch her makeup, and Anger went to unload a fresh Train of Thought delivery, including a set of Absent-Minded Humming cartridges which he lugged, grunting, over to Joy at the console.  
"There you are; one perfectly useless set of mindless tunes," Anger said, half kidding.  
"Thank you Anger, you're always such a help." Joy exaggeratedly patted the little brick, perfectly willing to employ her own sarcasm.  
"Yeah yeah. Just be careful. You know what those tend to trigger."  
"What?"  
"You know. I don't want to say it."  
"Oh, that. I'm sure nothing will happen, you'll see." Joy plugged in the first cartridge, similar to the way in which daydreams were used. Riley began humming a rendition of the Chicken Run theme, which all the emotions but Disgust had enjoyed. Anger, placated for the moment but still wary, moved back toward the delivery hatch.  
Joy and Sadness were again alone at the huge console, and with not much else to do, Joy asked, "What'cha reading about?"  
Sadness hesitated at first, still somewhat unused to Joy being sincerely friendly, and quietly replied: "Oh, nothing much. This is the new manual. I want to make sure we know what we're doing, and don't press the wrong button and mess everything up."  
Joy was still having a little trouble with accepting the pessimistic view, but at least Sadness was being practical. Joy preferred to wing it and hope things worked out, but Sadness' knowledge of the manuals had proved useful in the Incident, so she didn't mind. She casually switched out the cartridges, causing Riley to smoothly transition to a medley of "You're his Cheeseburger" and "The Pirates who Don't do Anything." "Anything stick out in particular?"  
"Well, don't tell Anger, but," here Sadness leaned in and whispered, "There's a safety switch on his board which makes any swear he chooses come out garbled."  
Joy laughed, covering her mouth with her hands in a valiant attempt not to let everyone hear. Sadness resumed in a regular voice,  
"Then there's the puberty button-"  
"The what?"  
"The one with the cover and the warning coloring."  
"Oh, so THAT's how you say it!" Joy face-palmed, giggling.  
"Yeah, well, this says it's supposed to trigger huge, life changing, uh, changes."  
Joy leaned forward expectantly. "Like?"  
Sadness shook her head. "It doesn't say, beyond 'this is necessary to continue to develop.'"  
Joy glanced over at the button. "Why not just press it then?"  
Sadness swallowed. "Well, you see, it lists a bunch of side effects, like mood swings."  
"What's a mood swing?"  
"It says it changes the 'balance of power' between the emotions, but that's it."  
Joy was made slightly nervous hearing that. What kind of anarchy, or just plain destruction, would happen if Fear, or Anger, got the power? Or even an overpowered Sadness? Empathy and sorrow is one thing, Depression is a whole other ball game. But, remembering Riley's mom's advice with shots: "Shouldn't we just get it over with then?" Her voice wavered slightly, unsure now.  
"Well, it says we should wait for a good time, and we have until Riley is almost fourteen. It's a long process anyways that can last different amounts of time, so we can wait until we find out some more," Sadness suggested.  
"I agree," said Fear, returning to the console. "We can't just go pressing the button with warning signs all over it, now can we?"  
Disgust also made her way back, a fresh shine in her hair. "Of course you would agree, Fear. Your whole thing is caution!"  
"Oh! So do want to press the button then?" Fear shot back.  
"Maybe. It would be funny to see your reaction!" Disgust raised her voice just to the threshold of shouting.  
"Ooh, a fight!" Anger walked back in, rubbing his hands. "Let me just get the pop-"  
Suddenly guitar chords sounded, and Riley's humming spontaneously changed tune from the "Fur Elise" remix that Joy had just put in. Everyone groaned.

 _"Triple Dent gum, will make you smile!_  
 _Triple Dent gum, it lasts a while!_  
 _Triple Dent gum, will help you mister,_  
 _to punch bad breath right in the kisser!"_


	4. The Archives

*Brrrring! Brrring! Brrr-*

"Hello? Yes? Okay, one moment." Dad put his hand over the mouth piece on his cell phone, and addressed Riley and Mom, who had stopped just ahead of him. "Go on ahead; I'll be ready when it's time to check out, I promise."

"Okay Dad!" Riley dashed up to the waiting library doors, pulling one open for her mother. Mr. Andersen stepped to the side of the entrance, resuming his conversation. It was Tuesday, and Riley had managed to see _The Empire Strikes Back_ on Saturday and _Return of the Jedi_ on Sunday. After weathering two days of school, Mom and Dad were finally taking her to the local library, which fortunately did not close until late at night. Of course, nothing is ever easy in HQ.

"How are we going to find anything in here?" Fear moaned.

"At least there should be new books here. We read all the good ones back in Minnesota." Disgust quipped.

"What if we get lost?" Fear continued. "Or a shelf falls on us? Or we can't figure out how to use the card catalog? Or- or-" Fear started running over his list of disasters.

"Now hold on, Fear, I'm sure everything will be fine! Remember when we went with Meg to the other library the first time?" Joy called up a bright yellow memory from Long Term. On the screen, a short clip showed of entering a cavernous structure with rows of books and a computer-lab. Fear calmed down a bit.

"Yeah," said Fear, already loaded with sarcasm. "Then we went and got lost in the reference area!" He called up a slightly later memory, this one sporting a blue sheen.

"Well duh, Riley was only three." Disgust retorted.

"I hope Dad's call isn't bad." Sadness wondered aloud.

"Oh come on everyone. Let's just give it our all. You with me?" Joy jumped in the air and pumped her fist. The response was as could be expected: "Yeah," "Uh-hu," "Maybe," and an indiscernible grumbling from Disgust, Fear, Sadness, and Anger, respectively. Joy rolled her eyes, and with a flick of the wrist she added a spring to Riley's step as she followed Mom inside.

"Okay Riley, I'm going to go get a library card. You can go look for books, but meet me back here in a half-hour. Got that?"

Joy twirled a thingamabob, ignoring Anger's "Of course!" and Disgust's "Do you think we're three?"

"Okay Mom!" Riley turned, and in mid-step shifted from running to fast walking, thanks to a button press from Fear.

"Wouldn't want to break the rules already!" Fear cracked his knuckles, his mood much improved.

Soon enough, Riley was wandering the shelves of the Juvenile Fiction section with a short list of author names from the catalog. Joy had pretty much taken the reigns, allowing the others to sit back and give occasional yea-nay on a book.

"Okay, how about this one?" Joy made a point of asking each time Riley held up a book. First there was one with a picture of the Earth with a bite taken out of it.

"Ooh, that one looks like it might be a monster book!" Anger said, enthused.

"Oh, no! I have dream duty soon, and I do not want another nightmare!" Fear, of course. Anger prevailed enough to proceed to looking at the synopsis. Disgust had come up with this method: first the cover, then the synopsis, then the first page, then they voted. If no one liked the cover or synopsis, they could skip the vote. It only took a simple majority to get a book. Joy, before the Incident, tried her hardest to game the system; now she was glad to have the procedure established. It kept Fear and Anger from tussling over monster books, at least.

"Oh, it's another of those sappy sympathetic monster books," Anger said, putting a mocking emphasis on sympathetic.

"That sounds better" Fear allowed.

"I'm for it," Sadness put in.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Joy pulled out a Mental Note, which looked like a sticky note, and scribbled " _Unfortunate Events_ \- SNI" before sticking it to the console. No one had remembered to look it up in the card catalog, but Riley had remembered the author's name. Sadness noticed, and smiled appreciatively. Meanwhile, Disgust nudged a switch, and Riley opened up the book to the first page and scanned it briefly, as her emotions watched and tweaked knobs and buttons as they saw fit.

"Alright, so let's vote!" Joy, as usual. "All in favor, raise your hand!" Sadness and Fear put up their hands; Anger sighed and lifted his.

"Closest we're going to get to a real monster, anyway."

As time passed, similar scenes played out for various books. The first of the _Series of Unfortunate Events_ passed over Fear's objections, with Anger and Sadness leading the support. They passed over both the _Judie B. Jones_ and _Magic Treehouse_ series, much to Disgust's relief and in spite of Joy's appeal to nostalgia, though Riley did pick up a new _Geronimo Stilton_ book. A book with a cat on the cover underneath the stately word _Warriors_ was accepted unanimously, as well as a new book with a pen displayed prominently, the latter because Disgust pointed out the author. More books were rejected, until only four minutes were left before Riley had to meet Mom to check out.

"Ooh! What if we look for Star Wars books! Dad mentioned there being some good ones!" Joy called up the relevant memory. The others nodded their assent. Upon reaching the catalog, however, they faced the daunting task of sorting through multiple pages of hits on a search for "Star Wars."

"It'll take forever to look through these in time!" Fear cried.

"Yeah, _The Science of Star Wars_? No thanks. Who knows how many are like it are hiding under cooler titles?" Anger began to smolder a little.

"Or _Death Troopers_. Just look at the cover picture!" Fear began to shake.

Suddenly, Joy jumped up. "I know!" She went and grabbed an Idea Bulb. "Let's ask the librarian!" No one objected, so Joy inserted the idea into the console. Ideas are trickier than most operations, because Riley would have to consciously consider it; a few bulbs had shattered when rejected forcefully from the receptacle. Riley accepted this one, though, and was soon on her way to the help desk. Upon reaching the desk, she found a young man, probably in his late twenties, reading a large tome on database management.

"Um, excuse me," Riley began, with the help of Joy and a little nudging from Disgust, who did not want to just stand there awkwardly.

"Yes, can I help you?" The man put down his book, revealing his face and a nametag which identified him as "James McGreeley, Catalogue Manager."

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could help me find a good Star Wars book," Riley said uncertainly. Fear may have had something to do with that, combining actions with Joy to create a bit of shyness.

"Well, it's not my usual job, but I think I can help." In spite of his nonchalant voice, Mr. McGreeley visibly brightened. "What period are you looking for?"

"Um, what?" Riley and her emotions said in tandem.

"Well, do you want Old Republic? Or Prequel? Maybe Legacy? Clone Wars?" He stopped, noticing that the kid was just getting more confused. "I see, new to the fandom?"

"Yeah, I just saw the movies this weekend" Riley admitted a bit sheepishly.

"Hey, no shame in that. Which ones did you see?"

Riley thought a moment. Joy called up a memory. "New Hope, Empire, and, I think Revenge of the Jedi?" The last one wasn't so clear.

Mr. McGreeley didn't correct the Return of the Jedi title. "Okay, so you just have the Original trilogy. I think I have something for you." He wrote quickly on a notepad, tore out the page and handed it to Riley. "That should do you for a beginning in the EU. It'll be over in 'Sci-Fi'"

"Thanks Mr. McGreely!" Riley turned and walked briskly towards the correct section, with just enough time to grab the book and meet Mom to check out.

On the paper, he had written: _Death Star_ , REA.


	5. Passed Down

After checking out, the Andersens began to walk home; Mom carried her and Riley's books in a cloth shopping bag, while Dad carried his books.

"Okay, dear, do you want to tell Riley the news?" Mom spoke as solemnly as she could muster, but her mouth kept twitching slightly, as though her emotions were barely keeping themselves off their console.

Riley's Disgust leaned forward. "News?" Her other emotions began to pay more rapt attention to the feed.

"I don't know. Are you sure this is the right time?" Dad valiantly maintained a neutral face; unfortunately, his neutral face tended toward a frown.

"Oh no, we're in trouble," Sadness began to wilt.  
"The house burned down while we were away!" Fear guessed wildly.  
"That quack of an eye doctor probably decided we need glasses!" Anger grumbled.  
"Now hold on, it probably isn't that bad. Oh, maybe someone is coming to visit from Minnesota!" Joy tried to keep things positive, to little success. As the emotions clamored, filling HQ with noise, Riley just looked tense.

Mom looked pointedly at Dad, clearly communicating the charade had gone on long enough. Thankfully, Dad got the hint. They both broke into grins.  
"The Moving van is four hours away, and will arrive tomorrow morning!" Dad revealed, and Riley, Mom, and all of Riley's emotions cheered.

"We're finally going to sleep in a real bed again!" Disgust rejoiced.  
"No more jury-rigged furniture to worry about!" Fear commented.  
"We'll find out exactly how much of Riley's stuff comes out unscathed." Sadness put in, as close to elation as she could summon. Joy was practically bouncing off the walls, occasionally stopping at the console long enough to put a spring in Riley's step, or tweak the huge grin, and a pure gold memory rolled into the rack. Anger whooped and smiled, then retrieved his newspaper whence he had left it before going into the library. Then he thought of something.  
"Wait, won't Riley be in school then?"  
Joy paused. "Maybe Mom and Dad will let us stay home to help move in."  
"Let's ask." Disgust moved a slider.

Riley pursed her lips. "Can I stay home and help move in?"  
Dad took a big breath and looked at Mom, who sighed. "No, sweetie, you have to go to school. We can't take you out for this."  
Anger and Sadness reached the console at the same time, causing Riley to loose a sigh simultaneously exasperated and disappointed, "Aw!"  
Before Joy could intervene, Dad added "Hey, you'll get to come home and arrange your room. Mom and I will have to drag the big boxes and furniture around!"He grinned again.  
Mollified, Anger withdrew, commenting that that was fair. Sadness gave one last button press then stepped back. Joy was again the only one manipulating a portion of the console.  
"That's true," Riley agreed, cheering up again.  
"By the way," Dad said, "I picked up a book for you while I was in the library." He drew a hardcover book off the top of his short stack, shifting the rest of it to the crook of his left arm. "This was the story that really started me into the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Since you liked the movies so much, I thought you would like it." He handed it to Riley.

Riley, and her emotions, inspected the cover. It was an impressive composition: A white-bearded man releasing power from his fingertips, under which were arrayed the faces of Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca, as well as a set of X-wings, a squad of Stormtroopers running from an explosion, and what appeared to be a blue-faced Imperial officer. The background was a field of stars; the title: _Heir to the Empire_.  
Disgust moved her hands back to the console. Fear looked sideways at her. "Disgust, don't you like it?"  
"Of course, obviously we all do, but as I've been telling you, we can't let Mom and Dad know!"  
Riley smiled slightly after considering it. "Thanks Dad. It looks good." She said with feigned nonchalance.  
"How about I carry it with the others?" Mom held out the bag, and Riley deposited the book on top.

Soon they arrived at home, and dispersed throughout the house. Dad went to his home office, currently hosting his laptop on a fold-able card table surrounded by external hard drives, Mom to the kitchen to begin dinner, and Riley to her room to begin homework. Once Riley started her Earth Science chapter, taking meticulous notes, the emotions left the console to stretch and take their break. Joy surveyed the memories, a healthy mix of all the colors showing that everyone was doing their jobs, even if the majority shone pure gold or sported gold accents. Her practiced eye traced the day's events, noting the usual patterns: reds and greens dominating the morning, chaotic mixes with almost constant small streaks of purple throughout the heightened alertness of the school morning, blue and yellow alternating through lunch due to a rather unappetizing meatloaf sandwich, returning to a similar chaotic mix of colors, though far less purple as the after-lunch drowsiness made class less about keeping up and more about staying awake.

Another memory rolled in, a dull copper indicating Riley's default, apathetic fact tallying. Joy frowned at looked over at the console; it must be so boring not to feel anything. She quickly darted her eyes about HQ, and saw no one but Sadness, who was staring out the windows at the Fiction Island. The little blue emotion had taken a renewed interest in it as more characters were added, including mostly tragic ones. The latest addition was a statue of Long John Silver from Treasure Island, recently finished as a school assignment. Joy turned back to the console; now she had an excuse to be near it. She took out a Mental Note, humming to herself.

Reaching for a pen, she quickly glanced around once more and gave a quick twirl to a control, then grabbed the pen. Glancing around once more, she was sure she was home free. She had promised she wouldn't use the console while the others were on break aside from dream duty, but Riley needed to enjoy her work, right?  
Joy quickly jotted down "Outline Treasure Island Essay" and stuck it to the console. Then she turned and walked over to Sadness.  
"Hey Sadness! How're you liking the island expansion? Pretty neat, huh?" She struck what she thought was an inspiring pose, hands on her hips and back ramrod straight, smiling radiantly. The other simply sighed peacefully, and said,  
"Well, it could be worse."  
Joy didn't even flinch; she was used to Sadness' idea of optimism by now. "What're they doing right now?"  
"Oh, they're clearing space for characters from the new book. I hear it's really tragic."  
"The one about the mice?"  
"Yeah, and men."  
"Come on, mice are fun! Remember Cinderella? They sing, and get into hijinks, and-"  
Anger suddenly called out from behind his newspaper. "And steal food!"  
Joy jumped. "Anger! How long have you been there?"  
"Long enough." He looked over the top of the paper.  
Sadness was confused. "For what?"  
"Joy knows, and it's enough that she knows that I know." He scowled at Joy. Sadness looked back and forth, and shrugged. Apparently she didn't need to know. Joy shrugged sheepishly, and apologized. Anger simply returned to his paper, justice having been served.  
Disgust emerged from the bathroom, having applied a fresh coat of makeup. "Is she almost done yet? Fear walked from the kitchen, carrying his afternoon tea. As the emotions took their places once again, he gave Riley an impulse to check that her notes were securely stowed in her binder.  
"All accounted for!" He asserted proudly.  
"Then let's crack open one of the books!" Joy suggested. Riley reached over and pulled the top book from the short stack where her mom had left them. It was _Heir to the Empire_. Joy flipped a lever, and Riley flipped open the book, eagerly skipping the copyright page, timeline, and contents page. Disgust added a dampener with a single press, making sure Riley stopped on the first page, then pulled a wire from under the console and handed it to Joy. Joy then plugged it into the daydream slot. This feed allowed them to see Riley's visualization of the events of the book, as a theater troupe in Imagination Land acted them out in real time. Anger surreptitiously donned reading glasses, reminding himself to put in a request for contacts. Joy pulled out a sparkly pair of opera glasses. They all read along with Riley's internal voice.

 _"Captain Pellaeon!" The voice called through the port-side crew pit, through the hum of background conversation. "Message from the sentry line: the scouts have just come out of lightspeed!_

"Ooh, this sounds good already" grinned Anger, only to be furiously shushed by the others. He harrumphed and resumed listening.


	6. Nothing to Fear

_"Hello, Solo," a snickering voice said._  
 _Han gave himself a three-count before turning casually to face the voice. "Well hello, Dravis," he nodded, "Long time no see. Have a seat."_  
 _"Sure," Dravis said with a grin. "Soon as you and Chewie both put your hands on the table."_  
 _Han gave him an injured look. "Aw, come on," he said, reaching up to cradle his mug with both hands. "You think I'd invite you all the way here just to shoot at you? We're old buddies, remember?"_

After reading the first chapter, Riley had been called in for dinner; now it was about an hour after dinner ended, and Riley had been reading the entire time. She was now lying sideways on her bed, the book propped up on one arm. The emotions similarly had slowly assumed the most comfortable positions they could while remaining at the console, almost all with variations of the same theme: Joy leaned forward with elbows on the console and chin resting in her palms, while Disgust used the backs of her hands and Fear propped his head with only one arm; with the other, he fiddled with a bit of string he had pulled from his shirt. Sadness went further, resting her chin directly on the table, and Anger assumed the precarious position of reclining back and resting his feet on the console. As it was the earliest part of the book, the emotions only had to occasionally tinker with the console to produce subtle mood shifts.

 _"Sure we are," Dravis said, throwing Chewbacca an appraising glance as he sat down. "Or at least we used to be. But I hear you gone respectable."_

Sadness and Fear touched their controls; a little tension, and a bit of confusion.

 _Han shrugged eloquently. "Respectable, such a vague word."_  
 _Dravis lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, well, then let's be specific," he said sardonically. "I hear you joined the Rebel Alliance, got made a general, married a former Alderaanian princess, and got yourself a set of twins on the way."_  
 _Han waved a self-deprecating hand. "I resigned that general part a few months back."_  
 _Dravis snorted. "Forgive me."_

Joy twisted a do-dad, both for the dialogue, and because she realized why respectability would not be a good quality for a smuggler's friends. She glanced to the side, and noticed that Sadness was dialing down the confusion at the same time; she smiled (wider) at how they were able to act in concert now.  
"Riley! Time to get ready for bed!"  
At Mom's voice, muffled as it was coming from downstairs, Anger was startled enough to fall backward in his chair, and Fear's jump ended with his face in his panel, making Riley jump slightly in turn. Joy tried and failed to contain a giggle, and Disgust openly sniggered. Meanwhile, the visualization overlay faded, and Sadness had the presence of mind to have Riley blink, sit up, and begin to look for her bookmark, with a bit of disappointment at being pulled out of the scene. Anger, now smoldering slightly as he chafed at his humiliation reached up and pulled a lever, just in time for Riley to say "Okay, Mom!" in a loud sort of groan. This kind of put Disgust out of her amusement, since that sort of petulance was supposed to be her domain, even if the motivation was different. Fear straightened his bow-tie, and suddenly pressed three buttons in rapid succession; it seemed one of Riley's legs had fallen asleep, and she had begun to trip. Any tension dissolved as the other emotions applauded his quick response. After that died down, Joy got everyone back to business.  
"Alright everyone, prepare for bed time! Disgust, make sure Riley's clean, sparkly, and good smelling!"  
"On it!" she replied, then to herself, "hmmm, maybe try brushing teeth first? Might be able to remember better, but then in the shower water runs through the mouth, so..."  
"Great! Anger, get ready in case we see another spider!"  
"Shouldn't I be watching for the spider?"  
"No, Fear, you need to make sure Riley doesn't slip on the wet tile. Let Anger get his crack at spiders."  
"Heh heh, yeah!" The red emotion rolled up his newspaper and slammed it against his hand a few times with loud THWACKs, his eyes seeming to burn with anticipation. Fear just sighed and rolled his eyes, wondering what he had done to deserve this.  
"Sadness, that leaves you and me to look at the story!" Joy clapped her hands and quickly called up one of the recent memories of the events. As they were in short-term memory, they were projected almost instantly. Sadness quickly adjusted some settings so the memory under consideration would only cover a small portion of the screen; everyone else still had to do their jobs, after all. "Alright, how about that space battle! That admiral is really smart, huh?"  
"Yeah, he'll probably cause a lot of trouble for the protagonists." Sadness agreed, but in such a way as to change the meaning.  
"I don't know; with all the art, maybe he'll end up allying with the Republic?"  
Sadness pushed up her glasses. "That would require an even worse villain."  
"Maybe, but..."  
They continued as Riley grabbed her only set of bed-clothes, and Disgust brightened at the thought of the rest arriving with the truck, and as she gently nudged a slider she managed to bring an almost smug grin to Riley's face. Sighing for a moment, she looked pointedly at Joy, who stopped trying to argue the merits of the Grand Admiral long enough to twirl a knob and upgrade the smugness to anticipation. Fear juggled watching the floor, making sure no clothes had been dropped, and getting ready to avoid scalding or hypothermia in the shower. Anger scanned the periphery of the screen for movement, slightly twisting his still-rolled newspaper and daring any creepy-crawly to show its face.  
Riley quickly showered, dressed, brushed her teeth and hair, and finally walked back into her room. Disgust made sure the dirty clothes made their way to the big spring-hamper in the hall on the way, and Anger began to despair of getting to smash a bug tonight, as he had only been able to find a false alarm cause by a tangled knot of hair dislodged from the hairbrush at some point. Fear withdrew from his ready position as soon as Riley hopped in bed, and Joy wiggled the controls to get Riley comfortable under the cool sheets.  
Finally, the parents came in, said their goodnights, and then the lights were out and Riley began to drift to sleep.  
"Whose turn is it for dream duty?" Disgust asked halfheartedly, filing her nails as she stood to begin the trek to her quarters.  
"Welp, looks like no one's getting any sleep tonight," Anger deadpanned, "it's Fear's turn."  
Joy shook her head, slightly amused. "Oh come on, Anger! Fear doesn't do it every time."  
"Oh yeah? Well no skin off my back; you and Sadness have to deal with it anyway. Tonight, I'm packing ear-plugs!" He then turned and marched up the stairs, following Disgust.  
Joy noticed Fear staring at his shoes, looking unsure of himself. "I'm sure Anger didn't mean it," she tried.  
"No, no, he's right," the other sighed. He then straightened looking more determined. "But tonight, there's nothing to worry about! Right?"  
"There's the spirit!" Joy jumped and clicked her heels. "Go ahead and get your tea, and I'll get out of your way. Anger said we got a fresh shipment of Chamomile on the Train this morning." She turned to Sadness, who was halfway to the window from her place at the console. "Coming, Sadness?"  
"In a little bit; I want to look at Fiction Island for a while, see if anything new is in," Sadness said with all the enthusiasm of a wet mop.  
"Okay, don't be too long!" Joy called out from halfway up the ramp to the sleeping room. "I don't want you keeping everyone up all night reading that manual again!"  
"Don't worry, Joy."  
"Of course not, that's Fear's job! Haha, get it, 'cause Fear- never mind." She skipped up the rest of the way and around into the sleeping quarters. A few minutes later, Riley began the transition to REM sleep, and Fear took his position at the console, teacup and saucer in hand. Sadness trudged up the ramp and entered the sleeping quarters; soon enough a reading light came on. The first bit of dream began; it looked like an abstracted library, with endless rows of books. Apparently a book was missing for some reason or something like that, Fear really couldn't tell. Fear looked around and surreptitiously moved to Joy's seat. Joy had a more comfortable seat than him, at least as far a reclining during dream duty went. His was harder, and kept him slightly more alert during the day, as he liked it, but staying up all night calls for a softer seat. Technically, Sadness had the softest in terms of padding, Anger's was heated, and Disgust's had the best cover, but those were both two short for Fear to sit in for long times without developing a crick in his neck.  
He settled back and watched the scene change, as the endless stacks turned in to a field of books growing on berry bushes.  
"Oh. Newberry awards. What will they think of next." Fear had developed quite a knack for sarcastic humor on dream duty, and though he knew he would never rival Disgust in that area, he was proud of branching out a bit, becoming a more well-rounded emotion.  
The faint light from Sadness' reading went out in the wee hours of the morning, around the time the dream shifted once more. Now Riley was watching a road from the porch of her house. Of course, the road was extremely large, and the house small, and they stood in the middle of nowhere. Fear chuckled nervously at the artistic license, lightening up again as he saw what appeared to be a semi-truck approaching; Dream Productions was doing one on the move. As it got closer, Fear saw it had livery like a jet-liner, and was going super fast. Then, when he began to fear it was about to hit the screen, it flipped around with no explanation and stopped right in front of the house, with the back facing the dream camera. Fear began to get excited about the reveal of the contents. Then the huge rear door opened.  
Fear gasped. The trailer was completely filled with inky black darkness. He held his breath as the void began to dissolve, slowly revealing an empty truck. When it was almost all revealed, he began to sigh in relief; it was just one about not getting the delivery. Then the breath caught in his throat.  
The last bit dissolved to show glowing red eyes, followed by a blue visage over a white uniform. The camera zoomed in on Thrawn's face.  
"Greetings."  
Fear's hair stood on end. He began to babble incoherently.  
"The real truck will be there as promised, containing your possessions."  
"What?" Fear was so baffled, all his anxiety disappeared.  
"Goodbye." And with that, Thrawn's face dissolved into the static of a lighter sleep phase.  
Fear blinked and looked around, realizing it was almost wake-up time.  
"Well, that was weird, even for Dream Productions!"


	7. Tip of the Tongue

Fear considered the recent dream; he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something uncanny about it. It wasn't the fact that Dream Productions had included a Thrawn character; Long John Silver had cameoed in a " _Where is my Homework_ " sequel after Riley read the first chapter of _Treasure Island_. He downed the dregs of his tea, and then slouched back in his chair. Then he sat up. Of course! It reminded him of how Joy, Sadness, and Bing-Bong had interrupted-

*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP*

"Ahh!" Fear jumped up, dropping his mug, flailed about, and pulled a lever on the panel. This had the effect of pulling max adrenaline, which automatically activated emergency wake up procedures and a klaxon in HQ. Riley's eyes shot open, her hand shot out-  
And she turned off the alarm clock. Fear and Riley hyperventilated in sync for a moment; then Fear pushed the lever back up. Suddenly, Joy was at her station, having bolted from the sleeping

quarters as soon as the clock had sounded. Morning person that she was, Joy worked quickly, bringing Riley to chuckle at being so startled by her alarm, then to slowly get up.  
"Good morning Fear!" She nearly sung.  
Anger, Sadness, and Disgust filed down the ramp far more slowly. Disgust, bleary-eyed, went into the bathroom to do her makeup, muttering something about calling her when it was time to get dressed.

Sadness just dutifully walked over to her station, stretching and yawning. Anger, on the other hand, marched with an irritated step. Fear cringed; he knew what was coming.  
"You just couldn't stand it could you!" Anger boiled, fire in his eyes but only hot air over his head. "Just had to use the emergency setting, even without a nightmare!"  
"Come on, Anger, at least he got us up fast," Joy placated.  
Anger was not ready to simmer down. "Not all of us are morning people like you." He whirled back on Fear, who at this point was standing behind his chair, putting whatever flimsy barrier he could between himself and the volatile brick. "Would it kill you to use the regular way?"  
"W-w-well, you c-c-can't blame me. There was this w-w-w-weird dream-" Fear stammered.  
"Oh yeah? How weird?"  
"Um-"  
"That's what I thought. You have no excuse!" Anger turned to the rest of HQ from where he had backed Fear into a corner. "Why do we let this pansy do anything?"  
A silence followed, as no one quite agreed with Anger's wrath, but no one wanted to face it either.  
Then, Joy saw an opening. "Breakfast!"  
"Ooh, what's it today?" Anger immediately diffused. Some might call him petty, or easily distracted, but really he just took an opening to get out of following his own temper to its logical conclusion. Anger marched over to his place at the console, grabbing his paper on the way.  
"Marshmallow cereal." Sadness yawned.  
"Again?"  
"What did you expect?"  
Rather than answer, Anger looked at the screen and grinned. "At least there's orange juice."  
Fear crept back to his place. "Don't forget the vitamins!" He pressed a button, highlighting the appropriate cabinet in Riley's peripheral vision.  
Once Riley had her dry cereal, orange juice, and vitamin supplement gummy, she sat down at the table. Sadness and Joy got to work, helping Riley alternate spoonfuls of pure cereal and pure marshmallow; a great improvement, they agreed, over the old method of eating all the marshmallows first. As they finished and downed the high-pulp orange juice (one of the reasons Disgust stayed in the bathroom during breakfast), Mom came into the kitchen.  
"Good morning, Riley!"  
Joy twirled her general control. "Mornin' Mom!"  
"Before you head off to school, make sure you get all your stuff off the floor!"  
"Okay, Mom!"  
Riley put her bowl next to the sink; she then bolted around the corner and up the stairs, barely missing Dad on his way down to breakfast.  
"Mornin' Dad!"  
Meanwhile, Disgust came out of the bathroom, hairbrush in hand. She stalked over to the console, getting there just in time to make sure Riley went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair.

Soon she had Riley ready to head out, and Disgust and Fear made sure the room got picked up per Mom's instructions.  
Finally, it was time to head out. Joy twirled her control and Riley got under way.  
"Bye Mom! Bye Dad!"  
"Bye Riley! Have a good day at school!" The parents said in unison.  
As Riley ambled down the street, Fear remembered something. "Guys, you need to see the dream from last night."  
Anger scoffed, "Oh, the 'weird dream.'"  
Sadness turned to look at Anger in a pretty good imitation of Disgust.  
"What? I'm just saying." Sadness continued to stare at him, eyes half lidded. "Okay, fine, see if I care." Anger then pulled his newspaper back in front of his face.  
"Besides, it could be fun. We almost never look at the dreams in the morning!" Joy agreed with Fear enthusiastically. Disgust didn't object, so Fear called up the last bit of the dream in memory. Unfortunately, dream memories tended to get lost or fade extra quickly, so the memory that came up wasn't quite right.  
Anger chuckled slightly. "Newberry bushes. I get it!"  
Joy laughed more enthusiastically, and Sadness cracked a smile. Disgust rolled her eyes at the lame joke; Dream Productions had better things to do than make lame puns.  
"Uh, wait, I'm sure the rest is in here." Fear tried to stay calm, but as he worked the controls, he just got more frantic.  
Disgust finally had enough of the incessant clicking, whirring, and hyperventilating. "Here, let me try," she said, reaching for her controls. Not to be outdone, Anger joined in, and Joy started helping just for fun. Sadness could see where this was going, and kept her hands off the controls.  
On the Outside, Riley was trying to remember the events of her dream the night before. She got to the end of the Newberry sequence, which prompted a smile, then started to remember something about sitting on the front step. She lost it though, as suddenly a tune rose up unbidden:

 _"Triple Dent Gum  
Will make you smile!"_

Turning into the schoolyard, she could have sworn that her mental picture of the commercial was engulfed in flames for a moment; what an imagination!


	8. Whoops

_"When discussing a promotion."_  
 _A flicker of surprise, almost too fast to see, crossed her face._

Riley's emotions were once again watching visualization on the big screen as Riley read _Heir to the Empire_. It had been another marginally productive day slaving away over papers, and only a few minutes were left in the last period. Riley had finished her homework for the day at the beginning of study hall (though, as Fear would remind everyone, you can never truly study enough to be 'done'), leaving some free time. The emotions were unanimous in wanting to continue the story, especially in light of the 'no talking' rule in study hall preventing social pursuits.  
Sadness occasionally took notes of some of the expressive language; though she felt a little silly, she felt it might work as a way to figure out some more precise mixtures to try with the others, and one of the Mind Manual sections she read last night recommended it. Flickering surprise, maybe some Fear and Joy, short inputs? Just Fear? She turned back to the screen. No need to miss the story for minutiae; she could speculate later.

 _She was still suspicious. He could tell that from her eyes. Suspicious that the offer was a smokescreen to mask some more personal request or demand on his part._  
 _"You don't have to answer now," he told her. "Think about it, or talk to some of the others who have been with the organization longer." He looked her straight_ _in the eye. "They'll tell you, I don't lie to my people."_

"What, does she think he'll ask her to kill someone?" Anger wondered aloud, albeit quietly. His only response was a shrug from Disgust. The emotions had enjoyed the end of the Han Solo and Dravis interaction, and both Mara Jade and Talon Karde were intriguing. However, some of the sentiments expressed took some stretching to understand; after all, why wouldn't you trust a respectable person? They rolled with it though; Riley chalked it up to different social context, if not in so many words.

 _"But bear in mind if you give me that kind of authority, I am going to use it. There's some revamping of the whole organizational structure-"_  
 _She broke off as the intercom on his desk warbled._

*Beeeeeeeep!*

The emotions jerked, a bit startled by the tone. "Since when did Riley start doing sound effects?" Sadness wondered aloud. Anger, who had managed not to fall over backward, retorted, "that's not the book, it's the bell!" He grabbed his levers and helped Riley get into gear, picking up her already packed backpack. Fear and Disgust worked to return the console to normal operating configuration, disconnecting the visualization cable. There wasn't any clean-up to do; the emotions hadn't bothered with snacks for such a short reading session.  
"Slow down, Anger, we need to put the book away," Sadness chided the red firebrand. Anger released his levers and watched impatiently as Riley paused by the door to open her backpack. Fear, finished with reconfiguring the console, took the chance to check the bag contents one last time.  
"Oh, I just remembered!" Joy slapped her forehead, her grin spreading a little wider. "The moving van!" She quickly recalled a snippet of memory on the projector, just enough for Riley to consciously remember.  
"Oh no, what if it didn't come!" Fear immediately started worrying. Anger and Disgust rolled their eyes in tandem, and Sadness looked at Fear pointedly. "Well, it's happened the last few times, hasn't it?" He called up a red and blue memory of the last time Dad had told them of a delay. That shook everyone just a bit. By this time, Riley was at her locker and beginning to pack for home.  
"Well then" Anger said, beginning to grab his levers and make light manipulations, "let's just go find out!" He pushed Riley to pack up a little faster.  
"Not so fast! We'll forget something!" Fear stabbed at a button, trying to slow Riley down. Anger started pushing a little harder.  
"You want to wait longer to find out?"  
"No! But we can't just rush off recklessly!"  
"Says who?"  
"I do!"  
"So what?"  
"Alright!" Disgust raised her voice, getting the bickering emotions to break death glares for a moment. "She's packed. Let's not run over our friends while you two argue!" Grudgingly, Anger moved away from the console, smoldering slightly and crumpling his newspaper. Fear started wringing his hands; he was over worrying about forgetting something, and was back to thinking about the moving truck. Disgust nodded, a little smugly, to Joy, who joined her in navigating Riley to the exit.

They made sure to farewell Riley's peers on the way; no need to be rude and undo Disgust's social planning. As soon as Riley got out the door, however, Anger and Fear leaped back to the console. Now, though, they had a single purpose: get home. Riley started to pick up the pace, getting to a jog. Joy joined in, not to be left out at such an important time.  
Disgust objected, "Hey! Not so fast!"  
"What's wrong?" shot Anger, "Afraid Riley'll get all sweaty?"  
"Ha, ha. Get that off a gum wrapper?" Disgust shot back. Then, more sincerely, "What if she trips? And worse, falls into something?"  
Fear jerked his hands off the controls. "You're right!" Riley slowed slightly, but still loped along at a fair clip.  
"Trip on what? It's just the sidewalk! Besides, Fear can recover a trip; that's his job!"  
Fear hesitated; then, with an apologetic glance at Disgust, resumed his input to the console. Sadness looked over to the short-term memory shelves and saw the latest memories were streaked all about with different colors like balls of yarn scraps, reflecting the anticipation and slowly ramping input from all the others. She moved to the console herself and started to tweak her controls; maybe she could smooth the others' input slightly. She was making progress, reducing expectations slightly, when a memory rose unbidden to the screen.  
As the memory played out, the trailer of a moving truck opened to inky blackness.  
"It's last night's dream!" Fear breathed, and started to work his controls faster. This was one of few times that a dream was scarier in daylight than while it was actually dreamed. Suddenly, as his fingers flew across his panel, he noticed something: his buttons were sticking on! He stopped, glanced at the big screen. Riley was going a little too fast, a little too frantically. She might actually trip, and with his buttons stuck, he couldn't do anything! He started to try and free them, first gingerly, then pounding to maybe just move something. Riley was coming to the corner before she would be able to see her house. Fear despaired, and yelled over the cacophony which had risen: "HELP!"  
Sadness was the only one who took notice, but thankfully, she knew what to do. She scanned her area, looking for specific control. "Oh, where is it? Where is it? There!" She reached toward the top of her panel and pulled a black lever with both hands. Immediately, the lights on the console dimmed.  
Riley slowed to a halt just before she turned on to her street. She panted for a moment, then took a deep breath and collected herself. Either the truck would be there, or it wouldn't. What was she so worried about? Chuckling quietly to herself, she turned the corner and ran smack into a light pole. "Ow!"  
"Well, that's what we get for celebrating!" Disgust quipped, as soon as the emotions stopped cringing. Indeed, they had all been a little too preoccupied with congratulating Sadness for diffusing that situation, and no one was watching the peripheral vision. Fear was especially sheepish; he'd had such a good record going, too. Anger wisely kept quiet, though he still gave a quick jerk of his levers to help Riley berate herself to be more careful in the future. Disgust directed Riley to look in a window, using it as a mirror. "No blood, but we'll probably have a nasty bruise. Ugh, if only Mom let us use makeup I could fix that!" Disgust threw her hands in the air.  
Riley rubbed her head, but after a moment she continued on her way. She saw two things immediately: first, there was no truck. Second, a stack of flattened cardboard boxes sat next to the porch. Ecstatic, she ran inside; her stuff had arrived at last!


	9. Who's There

The alarm clock showed midnight as Riley finally crawled into her bed. She had spent the past few hours unpacking and setting up her stuff, as she and her emotions had looked forward to for so long, interrupted only by dinner and bedtime preparations. She was a little sore from dragging around furniture, and there were still a few boxes left, but the warm yellow glow of contentedness lingered on the console as she closed her eyes.

Headquarters, on the other hand, held a less calm scene.

"Woooo!" Joy cheered, jumping and pumping her fists. All the emotions were jovial. Anger had loved helping rip open boxes, Disgust was in heaven making last-minute decorating decisions, and Fear was glad to check off a huge stack of worries he would never have to bring up again. Even Sadness managed a wistful little smile, having been able to enjoy some bitter-sweet nostalgia over some of Riley's possessions.

"Great day everyone!" Joy continued. "Who's got dream duty?"

"My turn." Anger went to grab a cola for his vigil.

Sadness, meanwhile, went to the observation windows to check on Fiction Island. Even with the most overtly tragic themes toned down, she still felt more connected with it than any other. She quickly scanned it, noting the few little changes since – wait, what's that? Out of the corner of her eye she saw a white figure dart between the Long-Term Memory stacks, which disappeared before she could focus on it. She squinted with strain as she scanned the stacks curiously. Just before she gave up and dismissed it as a mind worker, she caught sight of it again. It darted between stacks, only in view for a moment; but a moment was long enough. Sadness's eyes widened.

"Guys…" she breathed, turning to face into Headquarters.

The figure had been white-clad with black accents, far too lankily proportioned to be a Mind Worker.

Sadness cleared her throat and spoke up a little more: "Guys?" She took a step away from the window. Still not enough to get attention; Anger was on his way back to the console, and the other emotions were chatting as they ascended the ramp to the bedroom. None acknowledged Sadness' whisper. She finally gathered the courage to yell "Guys!"

All the other emotions paused what they were doing, Joy at the top of the ramp with Disgust and Fear, Anger just about to sit down, and turned to face Sadness. Fear leaned over the railing and asked "What is it? What's wrong?"

Sadness pointed out the window with one hand, gesturing with the other. "Come look! There's someone in Long-Term!"

Anger rolled his eyes. "Well duh. Mind Workers, remember?"

"No, not them. There someone else…"

Joy slid down the rail and moved to join Sadness at the window. The others followed, albeit more slowly. "Who?"

"Well, I can't be completely sure, but I think it was a – "

Just then, the figure re-emerged and paused with his hand to his helmet. Joy, having arrived at the window, gasped as she caught sight. The other three quickened their pace, and when they too saw the figure, gaped at the sight.

Sadness finished: "A Stormtrooper."

Joy recovered first. "Oh, that's all! Wow Sadness, you had me worried for a moment there. Phew!" She chuckled nervously.

Fear was less relieved. "What do you mean 'that's all'? What is a Stormtrooper, a bad guy, doing in Long-Term?"

Joy quickly explained her thought "He's probably just from Imagination Land, going to visit Fiction Island!"

Anger was not convinced. "He's not going that way, though."

"Maybe he's lost?" Disgust posited. Fear was about to retort, when suddenly the trooper lowered his hand and started striding toward Fiction Island.

"Well, seems like that was it," Joy clapped her hands. "Alright gang, enough excitement for one night; let's get to bed so we can start a great Thursday in the morning!" Sadness lingered a moment more to watch the trooper dart the rest of the way into Fiction Island; then she shrugged, and headed toward the ramp. Whatever was going on, it couldn't be too important.

Anger was left alone with his drink and the screen, which began showing the latest from Dream Productions in cascades of color.

Anger sighed. "Of course they do an abstract one when I'm on duty." Content that there would be nothing of note in the dream, he pulled out his newspaper and grabbed the mental notes pen. "At least I can get the crossword done."


End file.
